Promises ch. 5
by Lochar
A/N: Ya know, I don't think I had any plot development in the last chapter. Let's see what I can do to fix that. Also, I wrote this when I should have been writing a paper for school.
Naruto grinned across the open field at his opponent. Wiping some sweat from his eyes, he laughed. "That all you got, Uchiha?"
His dark-haired opponent stared back at him, Sharingan tomoes spinning as he kept watch. "Not on your life, Uzumaki."
Before either of them could begin anew, they heard a shudder from the brush. Both turned, facing what might be a new threat.
They relaxed slightly when the white haired old man stepped out.
"Ero-sennin! What do you want?" Naruto yelled at him. He sat down in the grass, knowing that his fight with Sasuke was now postponed for a while.
"Actually, I was here to find out if you wanted to be my apprentice." Jiraiya said.
Naruto jumped back up. "Really!"
"Yes, and if you want to be, we leave tomorrow. Meet at the gates at nine." He said, before turning around to leave.
"And what about Sasuke?" Naruto asked.
The boy in question sat down next to Naruto, watching the old man quietly.
"The village elders aren't going to let him leave. They want him near Tsunade in case something goes wrong with the seal." Jiraiya said, turning back around to face them.
"Then I'm not leaving. What happens if Orochimaru or his brother comes around here?"
"What, you think I'm weak dobe?" Sasuke glared at Naruto.
Naruto turned, confused. "Huh? No, you're not. But they're stronger than either one of us. It's gonna take both of us to beat the hell out of them. We're a team, remember?"
Nodding, Sasuke looked at the toad Sannin. "So do I get to go on this training as well then Jiraiya-sama?"
Jiraiya sighed and sat down as well, across from the two boys. "You do realize, Naruto, that part of the reason I was going to take you was to get you out of Konoha and out of sight of Akatsuki."
"So we stay here, and between all of us, they're not going to brave enough to come after us." Naruto grinned at the idea.
"You're not going to leave without him, are you Naruto?" Jiraiya half asked, half stated.
"I wouldn't go without Naruto, had you offered me, Jiraiya-sama." Sasuke said. "We're best friends. Hell, brothers in all but blood."
"Right!" Naruto yelled, looking between them.
Jiraiya looked at them, sighing to himself. "Well, at least you're more respectful than this brat." He motioned towards Naruto. "But we can't go far from the village without raising a major ruckus. Maybe a half day out."
He stood up, looking at his two new students. "I will see you both at the gates tomorrow morning then." He then walked away back through the bushes.
"Good-bye, Jiraiya-sensei." Sasuke said.
"Later, ero-sennin!" Naruto yelled at the retreating man. He then looked back at Sasuke. "So, how about we finish that match?"
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Jiraiya-sensei isn't like Kakashi, is he?" Sasuke asked.
Both boys were leaning against the wall outside the gate.
"Well, he's not always late like Kakashi is." Naruto said. "But."
"But?" Sasuke asked, dreading the answer.
"He does write those books that Kakashi reads, so expect him to drop what he's doing if he sees a pretty girl."
Sasuke let out a long, suffering sigh. "Must all adults be such perverts?"
"I'll have you know, I'm a Super Pervert!" Jiraiya said, appearing in a puff of smoke in front of them.
"Every one of them I've met has been." Naruto said, ignoring the old man. "Even Sandaime was."
"I guess that's what we have to look forward to then. I pity us." Sasuke, looking at his sensei.
Jiraiya was now twitching, before he composed himself. "Anyways, follow me. Tsunade said we have to return once a week so that she can give you a clean bill of health Sasuke and not throw the elders into a conniption." Jiraiya jumped into the trees, his students following closely behind.
After a few hours of quiet traveling, Jiraiya spoke. "This is your first lesson. Mainly for you Sasuke, but you need to listen as well Naruto."
Both boys nodded.
"Anything you've used against him in the past, expect to see it used against you in the future. Including the Chidori, as you used the seals to activate it in front of him."
"Damn it." Sasuke quietly cursed.
"He was also an ANBU before deserting Konoha, so he knows most of the ninjutsu that either of you could learn from the Jounin-sensei."
"So he can climb trees and walk on water. It'd have been nice if Kakashi would have taught us something else useful, instead of just working on stamina and control." Naruto said.
Jiraiya started, almost missing his next jump. "Excuse me?"
"Until he trained me for the Chuunin exam, he usually just left the three of us to practice ourselves, with him just giving us bits of advice occasionally. He usually just read his books." Sasuke explained. "And my training for the exam was me activating my Sharingan, and then he showed me Chidori and Lee's taijutsu style. Then it was back to stamina work."
Nearly growling, Jiraiya nodded. "Nothing to do about it now, I guess."
"You're not much better, ero-sennin. You always go off after girls and leave me alone." Naruto shouted at him.
"But I left you something to work on, remember? I didn't give you vague ideas on what to do to get stronger. I gave you a move that you had to practice to learn." Jiraiya shot back.
He then dropped out of the trees into an large, open clearing. Both Sasuke and Naruto followed.
"Anyways, here is where we will be training for the next few weeks."
Naruto looked around, before looking back at his sensei. "So, what are we going to do?"
Jiraiya looked at Sasuke, who had already activated his Sharingan in anticipation. "First thing, turn that off."
Sasuke looked shocked, but let his eyes fade back to normal.
"Several of the things I'm going to be teaching you don't have seals, so you can't just memorize them. And anything that does have seals, you will be learning the regular way. You learn them better that way, and you will be able to use it more effectively."
"Really?" Sasuke asked, sarcasm dripping from his tone.
"Really." Jiraiya closed his eyes, bringing his hands up into a seal. So quiet that neither boy could hear what he said, he released the jutsu and opened his eyes.
Sasuke jumped back, kunai nearly flying into his hands. There before him, Jiraiya had the Mangekyō Sharingan. "Genjutsu?" His own Sharingan activated, but nothing about Jiraiya changed. "Itachi, you brought us out here unaware. I'll kill you."
Before he could attack, the Sharingan faded from Jiraiya who laughed. "A simple Henge, applied only to my eyes instead of to my whole body. You didn't know it was possible, and it was so simple that your Sharingan didn't bother to see through it. And yet look at the reaction I got from you."
Sasuke sat down hard. "Well, if you had been Itachi, Jiraiya-sensei, I would have had the pleasure of watching Naruto's attack go through your back."
Jiraiya turned around, to see Naruto had stopped only a few feet away from him, Rasengan in hand, ready to attack. There were two gouges in the earth where Naruto had dug in to stop from hitting him. "Well." He laughed again, this time much more nervous. "I guess you two have team attacks down."
Naruto calmly walked outside of the clearing, Rasengan still spinning in his hand. Both people left in the clearing winced as the watched a relatively large oak fall to the ground. Naruto came back into the clearing, smiling.
"So, now what?" He asked.
"We start with learning how to manipulate a jutsu after it's already been created." Jiraiya said. "We'll start with Henge, as you can't hurt yourself if it backfires."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Henge!" Voices rang out over the clearing a few days later, as the two genin seemed to switch places.
"Eyes only." Jiraiya said.
They closed their eyes, struggling. Slowly but surely, the illusion started to waver. Feet and then legs returned to their original owner. After a few minutes, they both looked at their sensei, Sharingan staring out from Naruto's face while Sasuke had bright blue eyes.
"Good. Now, without dropping it, add the right arm." Jiraiya leaned back, watching.
Both boys concentrated. Faces wavering as the Henge tried to slowly return to normal, first Sasuke then Naruto managed to swap right arms, before taking control back over and then both stood there, only eyes and arm switched.
"Good, good. Only took ten minutes. You can drop the Henge now."
Both boys dropped to the ground after releasing the change, panting.
"Why is this so tiring, Jiraiya-sensei?" Sasuke asked, noticing that Naruto was as tired out as he was. "And if it's this hard to do with just a Henge, wouldn't something even harder be worthless in battle?"
"It's about control. Once you use the jutsu, you normally just release control and feed it more chakra if it's required. Now you have to control the chakra once it's already been activated and used. Naruto has a little more experience, because of the Rasengan, but both of you need to learn the control." Jiraiya thought for a moment. "If you two want to use it on battle moves, go ahead. It might be a little easier."
Naruto's eyes lit up. "Yes! Now, what do I wanna do?" Naruto thought for a moment.
"You should have enough control to create a one handed Rasengan now, Naruto. Once you can do that, switch it between hands." Jiraiya suggested.
"And do I get to learn this technique as well?" Sasuke asked, watching as Naruto's face screwed up in concentration.
Jiraiya shook his head. "I don't think you'd do well with it. The Uchiha are more fire based."
"And yet my strongest move is a lightning one." Sasuke reminded him.
"Then work with that. See how well you can spread the Chidori down your arm. It would be very interesting if you could turn the attack from an assassination move into a defensive one. A field of lightning protecting the body from taijutsu." Jiraiya started talking to himself, thinking it over.
Sasuke's eyes lit up, images of a certain person trying to pin or throw him, only to be struck with the force of a lightning bolt. Quickly forming the handseals for Chidori, the field was filled with the sound of chirping birds.
So, what do ya think? Read and review!